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Venture Capital News: Choose Energy Closes $4M Series A

2013-03-26
PLANO, TX, Choose Energy announced today that it has received a Series A fundraising round from Kleiner Perkins Caufield & Byers (KPCB) and Stephens Capital Partners. Firm educates consumers on their options for residential electricity supply.
Choose Energy announced today that it has received a Series A fundraising round from Kleiner Perkins Caufield & Byers (KPCB) and Stephens Capital Partners. The capital will be used to accelerate growth, supplement the world-class technology and marketing team, expand the scope of services for retail energy suppliers, and strengthen its market position as the most visited online energy marketplace.

Founded in 2008, Choose Energy educates consumers on their options for residential electricity supply. It provides a simple, intuitive interface to allow consumers to compare retail electricity plans, filter plans based on term, price, and type, select a plan that they like, and seamlessly enroll online. Choose Energy is also building tools to help retail energy providers compete more effectively, leveraging lessons from telecommunications, travel, media and other web-enabled industries.

Choose Energy is defining the new norm for choosing energy online and has helped more than 100,000 consumers find and enroll with a new electricity supplier. Currently active in Texas, New York, Ohio, Pennsylvania and Illinois, the Company plans to enter all 19 deregulated energy states and 22 deregulated natural gas states, which combined represent $250 billion of annual spend in the U.S. While a range of plans is offered on the site, more than 40% of Choose's customers have selected 100% green power plans.

"Ten years after deregulation, we're still experiencing a huge communications gap between the consumers of energy and retail energy providers," said Jerry Dyess, CEO of Choose. "Our goal is to bring transparency to the complex decisions consumers face when choosing a new energy plan in deregulated states. By providing a decision-making destination for consumers that's akin to choosing a flight online, we drive new sales, improve satisfaction and dramatically cut acquisition costs. The addition of Kleiner Perkins and Stephens supports our vision of a nationwide platform that serves this vibrant energy marketplace."

In addition to helping consumers find the energy plan that's right for them, Choose Energy is developing solutions for Retail Energy Providers to support customer acquisition, compelling offer creation, customer enrollment and ongoing relationship management.

"Traditional utilities were not built to compete for customers, or to maintain an ongoing dialogue with them," said David Mount, partner at Kleiner Perkins Caufield & Byers. "Choose is building the solutions that enable retail energy providers to attract and develop lasting relationships with their customers."

"Stephens is delighted to be involved in this financing round, and we believe Choose Energy has the potential to be a disruptive player in the deregulated energy marketplace, reducing friction for both consumers and retail energy providers. With this unique combination of silicon valley technology and Texas energy, we see a huge opportunity for transformational growth," said Justin Courtney, Senior Vice President of Stephens, Inc.

About Choose Energy
Since its inception in 2008, ChooseEnergy.com has helped over 100,000 consumers and business owners shop for and switch energy suppliers and plans, with over 1 billion KWH of energy selection occurring through the Choose Energy platform. ChooseEnergy.com is currently available in Texas, New York, Ohio, and now Pennsylvania. For more information, please visit http://www.chooseenergy.com

About Kleiner Perkins Caufield & Byers (KPCB)
Kleiner Perkins Caufield & Byers (KPCB) has backed entrepreneurs in more than 500 ventures leading to 150 IPOs, 350,000 jobs and a deep strategic network. The firm has helped build pioneering companies like Align, Amazon, Electronic Arts, Genentech, Genomic Health, Google, Intuit, Juniper Networks, Netscape, Symantec, VeriSign and WebMD. KPCB partners serve on the boards of Amazon, Apple, Bloom Energy, Flipboard, Foundation Medicine, Google, Hewlett-Packard, Nest, Square, Tesaro and Zynga, among others. KPCB accelerates the success of entrepreneurs with a team of partners delivering company-building services including strategy, operational scaling, recruiting, business development, product delivery and marketing communications. The firm invests in all stages from seed and incubation to growth companies. KPCB operates from offices in Menlo Park, San Francisco, Shanghai and Beijing. http://www.kpcb.com
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